Bush 'raised Iraq issue (three days) after 9/11' [View All]

[sabra]

Source: UKPA

George Bush raised the issue of Iraq with Tony Blair just three days after the 9/11 attacks, Mr Blair's former foreign policy adviser has said.

Sir David Manning told the official inquiry into the war that Mr Bush told Mr Blair that there could be a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaida in a telephone conversation on September 14 2001.

He said Mr Blair insisted that the evidence would have to be "very compelling" to justify any action against Iraq.

Sir David said that, throughout the period, Mr Blair argued strongly in favour of trying to resolve the issue of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction through the United Nations.

"The British Government's view throughout this was disarmament. It was not regime change," he said.

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